Rhino
2x }} 'Rhino '''is the heaviest of all the Warframes. His strength enables him to combine a mix of devastating offensive attacks with formidable defensive powers. The tank of the battlefield, the Rhino Warframe specializes in brute force tactics, such as slamming his massive girth into opponents, and smashing the ground to suspend enemies mid-air, leaving them vulnerable to melee attacks. He can also turn invincible in the heat of battle, attracting the attention of enemies away from allies, and allowing him to crush his foes. Acquisition The Rhino Warframe can be purchased for 375. The blueprint can be purchased for 35,000. Note: The Rhino is only warframe that is XP locked. You must reach Mastery Rank 2 before you can acquire it (although it's currently bugged so that if you buy the Rhino pack including his pistol and shotgun you get all those level 2 items even if you're only level 1. However this requires platinum.). Component blueprints drop from Jackal (Fossa, Venus). Cosmetics Rhino can be equipped with a Thrak helm. Thrak helm increases his max health while decreasing his sprint speed, further altering his playstyle. Be prepared to fight your way out of binds instead of playing Loki-style and bolting out of there. With that sprint speed, you simply can't, especially against the infested. Abilities Ability Overview Rhino is as his name suggests, a tank player, with crowd control abilities. However, you may see references to its current brother tank frame Frost; Rhino is much more multi-target/crowd-control oriented and tends to work best in a group as opposed to Frost, which is much better suited fighting small numbers of enemies to 1v1 bosses. Frost's abilities compared to Rhino's bear a much narrower scope, that is Frost's abilites effect a fewer maximum number of enemies per activation. (Before you go pointing out Avalanche, keep in mind that Rhino's supercharged ability, Rhino Stomp, is also a 360 degree AoE.) Therefore, a Frost player may see greater effectiveness when fighting bosses; however a skilled Rhino rider can compensate and dish it out nonetheless. Like Frost, Rhino is very (very) reliant on his abilities to survive and dominate the battlefield because though he fits a tank role, his unsupercharged unmodded max shields sum up to about a low 250 with a supercharge raising that by 100. Thus, wise energy management is advised to keep a Rhino rider from meeting the same fate as the scattered dead bodies in a self-destruct scenario while still dishing out the heavy multi-target damage. Rhino's first ability, Rhino Charge, is like a nerfed version of Excalibur's slash dash, at first at least. For 25 energy, Rhino dashes forward in a straight line with his arms outstretched, killing any enemies with low enough health, and knocking down any survivors.This knockdown effect isn't shared by Excalibur's slash dash, making it a more useful tool for crowd control, but it currently lacks the ability to go up slopes or stairs. Its range is unaffected by the amount of enemies between him and the rank range, and thus is effective against groups of enemies. Its range at rank 1 is miserable, and its damage rather lacking for the sheer difficulty at hitting a single opponent. However, it is possible to reach all three ranks without an Orokin Reactor, and as stated in the ability section, each rank increases the damage and the range of Rhino Charge until it nears the same range as an Excalibur Slash Dash. While it does not deal as much damage as Slash Dash, Rhino Charge is nonetheless a useful and spammable tool in the Rhino's arsenal; in fact, the other tools a Rhino rider has access to likely outweighs the comparison between Slash Dash and Rhino Charge. Much like Slash Dash, a Rhino Charge will allow a Rhino rider to safely pass an active Corpus laser barrier. (As a side note, in an energy plentiful mission, the slow base speed of Rhino may encourage the use of Rhino Charge as a mode of transportation. Feel free, just watch that energy.) Rhino's second and primary defensive ability is Iron Skin, a very valuable skill that effectively renders a Rhino rider full invincibility for the short period it lasts (as well as stun resistance to things like; Graneer rollers, Infested chargers, AoE Shockwave). After a fee of 50 energy, any and all incoming damage is nullified (not reduced, completely nullified) while the ability lasts: incoming fire, exposure to vacuum through the atmospheric leak scenario, and even poison. If affected with poison, activating Iron Skin will stop the health drop effect of the poison but not cure the poisoning outright. However, the duration time of Iron Skin will likely outlast any poisoning so long as the player limits contact to the fumes. (In other words, don't go bathing in it and expect to be completely protected.) Players protected by Iron Skin can also run past a Corpus barrier unharmed. However a Rhino Charge (or just shooting out the camera dammit -w-) is more energy efficient. Shields can still recharge without mitigation with active Iron Skin; a player with no shields and exposed health can activate the ability, stop all incoming damage, and allow his shields to recover. Besides being a very effective bum-rush ability, a Rhino can use it to revive fallen teammates in the heat of battle without fear of falling themselves. Unfortunately, (as it would be compeletely overpowered...) Rhino cannot share invincibility with his teammates unlike Frost's Snow Globe, which protects all teammates within the confines of the globe. However, Iron Skin effectively protects against more types of damage and most importantly, follows the player; there is no need to remain rooted in one space in order to recieve full protection. Use this to your advantage, but take care when the ability runs out. A supercharge is required to access the second and third ranks of the skill in order to increase the total duration. At a cost of 75 energy, Rhino can use Radial Blast, a 360* AoE damage dealer. Rhino punches the floor, creating a shockwave within a certain radius around him, killing enemies with a low enough health, dropping stronger enemies to the floor, and staggering the rest, like bosses. Like Iron Skin, a supercharge is required to rank Radial Blast to its second and third ranks, increasing range and damage. Compared to Frost's main non-supercharge AoE move, Ice Wave, Radial Blast seems to do a deal less damage, and can only hit each enemy once whereas Ice Wave could potentially hit an enemy multiple times. However, the vastly greater scope compensates by attacking a much greater number of enemies per activation. As such, Radial Blast is far more effective against large groups of enemies instead of a single high-powered boss, as a blast is unlikely to drop or even stagger a boss, depending on the boss. After a supercharge, increased levels increase the range moderately and the damage/knockdown Exponentially, so much so that while a level 1 radial blast may have little effect in a lower leveled world, a level 3 blast can kill enemies all around in late worlds while knocking dozens of enemies to the ground. Rhino final move, Rhino Stomp (very creative name there...) requires a supercharge and 100 energy per activation. In case the name didn't give it away, Rhino stomps the ground with such force as to disrupt the time around him, sending enemies flying backwards in slow motion. As they fly, enemies make little horizontal motion, essentially falling in place. Conflicts with physics aside, Rhino himself is not slowed down after activation; while enemies around him fly backwards in invisible molasses, a Rhino rider is free to begin carving them up, opening fire, or making a break for it at full standard speed. Compared to Frost's Avalanche, Rhino Stomp deals far less damage (unconfirmed) while affecting enemies in a smaller 360* range. The smaller effective range means that in order to achieve full affect, a Rhino must get closer than a Frost at the same ability ranks in order to bring an enemy into the ability's effective radius, potentially placing the Rhino in danger. Alone, a Frost's Avalanche would likely prove more deadly than a Rhino's Stomp, but as said before, that is where teammates come in. Once upgraded, a Stomp is a death sentence for enemies as teammates are free to attack the affected enemies without fear of retaliation, whereas an Avalanche spells the same as a Mag's Crush: teammates typically stop shooting, watch the pretty animation, and then mop up the survivors. Also, these supercharged abilities are probably where the 1v1/crowd differences of the Frost and Rhino melt, or even reverse. Aside from the weak leveled bosses, boss enemies are typically able to survive multiple avalanches put out by a Frost, during which some teammates are known to stop engaging the boss. Meanwhile it is true that Rhino Stomp is primarily a crowd ability, the very act of incapacitating an enemy for a short period of time is absolutely indespensible. A well timed stomp against a single boss can buy time for a team revival, reload, shield regeneration, or simply make a moving target much easier to shoot/melee. Rhino Charge vs. Slash Dash Many new players of the Rhino come to it from the Excalibur warframe, thinking of the ability as a shorter ranged, stronger version of Slash Dash, and end up disappointed. It has to be understood that, while the two seem similar, both being charge forward while attacking powers, their mechanics and functionality are different. At the core of it, the Slash Dash is primarily a damage power, moving forward while dealing high damage to all nearby enemies, which also means whatever enemy is currently still in front of you, resulting in the very high damage to miniboss enemies like Grineer Heavies. Trying to use Rhino Charge the same way will, in a unpleasant surprise, result in being stationary, and ending up with the enemies in front of you injured but still very alive. The reason is the difference in mechanics. Slash Dash damages all enemies near the Excalibur, moving forward if there's nothing stopping him. Rhino Charge, meanwhile, consists of two distinct phases - the "Trample" and the "Gore", while, to extend the metaphor, lacking a "Ram" portion. The Trample is the part that resembles Slash Dash the most, as the Rhino surges forward until he reaches maximum range (or rather, maximum move time), damaging and knocking down enemies beside him. Here is the core of the issue: Trample does ''not affect enemies in front of the Warframe. If there are a few enemies in front of the Rhino, he'll do not much in this phase. Gore, meanwhile, is the final blast of damage which does not appear to knock down on its own, and have fairly limited damage in comparison. Once familiar with the above, it's possible to learn how to use Rhino Charge to as good and sometimes better effect than Slash Dash. In short, do not actually charge at enemies. Instead, charge between them, letting the immense trample damage smash them into a fine paste. If you cannot charge between enemies, jump and charge above them, trampling them into the ground. It takes practice, but the results may be well worth it. Tips *Rhino's bulk comes at a price; his base movement speed is among the lowest of the warframes. Keep this in mind when dealing with impatient teammates playing Ashes/Lokis or running from disgruntled Infested. *Unlike a standard physical combatant frame like Excalibur (who can fulfill his role without heavy use of his abilities), Rhino's role of a tank forces him to depend more on his latter three abilities to accomplish said role. Use your energy wisely, instead of spamming Rhino Charge. Media Category:Warframes